Cryptomining Malware Continues Rapid Growth: Report

Cryptomining malware is the fastest-growing category of malicious software, according to a new report.

Ransomware is the biggest trend in malware and it shows little signs of slowing down. After new cryptomining malware samples grew 629% to more than 2.9 million samples in the first quarter of 2018, their growth continued; in the second quartter total samples grew by 86% with more than 2.5 million new samples.

The news about cryptomining malware is at the center of the McAfee Labs Threats Report: September 2018, released today. The company notes that cryptomining has become such a popular malware approach that older malware families are being re-tooled to carry cryptominers, rather than ransomware or botnet recruiters, as their payload.

In addition to the cryptominers, both ransomware and mobile malware continue to grow, with new ransomware samples increasing 57% in the last year. This represents a slower growth rate than that previously seen, but is remains significant growth. Mobile malware grew 27% in the second quarter, with South America seeing the highest rate of new variants.

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